Summer Lovin'

   I think in the last post I said I didn't have many pictures from the last time I lost weight, except between being 112 and gaining it all back again.. *over dramatic disappointed eye roll and long sigh* Well, tonight I realized that I never posted all of my great exercising, nature, and food pictures from June, July, and August 2018 on here! At the time I was focused on finally having Emma home from the hospital/ enjoying my maternity leave/ updating her blog -- as any good Mommy would do!-- but I did post enough on Instagram, Facebook, and in a secret Pinterest board that I just collected. I definitely don't mind posting them now, while said sweet Babyloos is "sweepin".
    I'll start with these "before" collages, although they are a month apart. The one with pink hair was my first "official" Mother's Day. The year before I was pregnant and in 2016, Mother's Day was the month after my miscarriage, so I considered myself a Mommy then too. Anyway, I was about 129 pounds here, about a week before I got serious about needing to eat better and exercise again. In the following picture, decorating Emma's birthday cake, I was down to 123. That was Day 19 of being healthy.

Now for all those beautiful outdoors-y/ sun/ flower/ salad/ tennis shoes photos that I love so much!! These are not going to be in order since I don't remember when most of them were taken, but I will also scatter in some notes from my journal about how I was feeling. Oh yeah, I learned that I can no longer have ANY caffeine (not even coffee like in a Starbucks milkshake type drink) because I ALWAYS get a bad migraine now and it causes me to throw up. I did that experiment about 3 different times, over a period of 6 months on different kinds of drinks and got sick every time, even if I only had a few sips!!

   Captioned on June 14th ~ "My favorite stuff right now: I love being on a Health High, getting excited to make different salads and walk each evening. Yesterday I went 6.2 miles!" & Yeah, I always have to throw in that picture of me from October 2017 at Typhoon Lagoon. It's definitely my favorite post-pregnancy "skinny" photo. More than the ones from Sept 2018!
   Journal Notes: 5/21 ~ We eat to distract us from being sad or mad, but then later we are sad and mad about our weight. It's a painful loop. When I walk and dance I feel a lot less stressed and then have no desire to eat junk because I love how great my body feels in those moments with my heart pumping. I also watched a documentary from the library called "Carb Loaded".
   It talked about the side effects of too many carbs and sugars. High carbs create high amounts of insulin which causes our bodies to stop telling us when we are full. That's why we can just keep eating some foods like chips and it doesn't fill up our stomachs, but has so many calories in one sitting (average 45 minutes)! Whole and refined carbs trigger elevated insulin levels, causing increased hunger and inflammation. When a label says "low fat", that usually means they pumped up the sugar to make it taste good, and vise versa. There is little difference to our brains between drug addicts and sugar addicts!! Our body stores fat from food to use it to burn it off later, but then we don't do anything to burn it off, hence gaining weight.

June 30th ~ Day 40 & Emma home for 2 months!! (119 pounds) *Note the Shrimp Necklace. ♡

   Journal Entry 5/24 ~ Day 3: The first week or two is usually the hardest, pushing through the part of my brain that tells me it's okay to be lazy. I think the reason why I feel like giving up is because this is my highest non-pregnancy weight in TEN YEARS! So instead of having 8 pounds to lose, it's now at least 20 pounds! (Current note: Last summer I actually lost 17 in 100 days to get from 129 to 112 pounds, but would like to lose more, like 25 pounds!, this time in 2019. So yes that will take even longer. But I've got nothing but time!) *Important Note* from 5/24/18 ~ Today was great - being good and eating healthy. I was feeling great on the way home from errands to the library, Dollar Tree, and Marshalls, jamming out to HSM2. I even jogged half of the third loop around our neighborhood!  

   The following day I started making that Skinny Slytherin photo album, which is similar to all these blog posts, but with a lot less information and photos. I need to look at that more often and update it from September. I fell in love with apple slices with peanut butter at the end of May. 

   Journal Entry 5/31/18 ~ "No muchies today, but I hate my stomach sticking out and I'm going to the beach (Palm Coast) on Saturday. I am not patient and keep thinking, 'It's been ten days! How have I not lost 26 pounds yet!?' That's probably why people give up, but I won't." ✩ Sam Evans diet when he was obsessed with becoming a male model on Glee: chicken, egg whites, fish (not salmon), oatmeal, brown rice (but not after 6pm), and no butter or oil. ✩ I'm not this strict, but it was good to write down.

   Journal Entry 6/7/18 ~ I feel really good- lighter. My portions are smaller, but keep me satisfied! But not FULL to where I've eaten too much and my stomach sticks out. I might start eating even less at each meal, but having 6 meals a day, instead of 3 (divide each one in two). I also looked up Weight Watchers foods that are Zero Points/ things you can eat as much as you want of because they are good foods, but some I was surprised by, so maybe it's not all correct? Apples and applesauce (unsweetened), arugula, bananas, beans, blueberries, cantaloupe, carrots, chicken breast (skinless), corn, dates, edamame, eggs or egg substitutes, fish, grapes, greens/ green beans, kiwi, lentils, mango, mushrooms, oranges, peaches, peas,  peppers, pineapple, strawberries, sprouts, tomatoes, turkey breast (ground 99% fat free or skinless), and yogurt (must be plain and unsweetened). 

Walking 5.5 miles with Ashley (above) & 3 with Danielle (below), beginning of July ~ 117 pounds.

   Journal Entry ~ mid June: I think it is very important to remember this. Not sure how much the Hypnosis weight loss meditation app has really helped, but lately non-nourishing foods have just been "meh" for my sensory palette. We got Texas Roadhouse for dinner with Michael's mom and NaNa, but I only had one bite of a french fry and 3/4 of my roll with cinnamon butter. The steak was really good, but I'm REALLY looking forward to a salad before my walk! This is a really nice feeling. // Other notes: Restricting what you want can cause more cravings, while fasting does not. Hunger = stomach hunger, Craving = mind hunger. // Tricks to make your brain hate junk food: 3 colors per meal, fruit = dessert, keep healthy snacks around like veggies and hummus, chew more and don't take the next bite until completely done with the bite before!
   Journal Entry ~ 6/24/18: Why do I make bad food decisions? Peanut butter and graham crackers feel like cement in my stomach. The bad food makes me want more bad food and to keep eating even when I'm not hungry, but I have to ignore it and go for a walk. And now Michael is annoyed at my crankiness. The mistakes ruin us. One day of mindless self indulgence takes away the progress made in a whole week. THINK before eating!! Today's Editor's Note: I believe a lot of this has to do with sitting in front of the TV while eating. That should be a new rule ~ Always eat at the dinner table/ don't eat on the couch (except popcorn?)/ more dinner dates with Michael at home, even if we are eating our own separate meals. But cooking together would be even better and more romantic!

 This Instagram photo from August 16th, was captioned saying I walked 5 miles after Emma's ENT appointment. This was actually the day I walked 8 miles total, adding 3 more miles around the neighborhoods that evening. I felt pretty exhausted the next day, but had to work. The caption also said, "I walked 6 miles last Friday and 7 miles on Saturday. I enjoy being outside."

Joseph's low calorie pita bread that became a huge staple for snacking the last month (August). This is what I ate most of the time after work or while Michael and I watched Rookie Blue on DVD.

Walking to & from the library! 

  This is a time when eating pizza is 100% guilt-free. This was from July when Sharanya and I got to hang out. We walked at least 3 miles, then spent an hour jumping around at an indoor trampoline place. So yeah, this Satchels pizza was well-earned. And we also both got their amazing apple feta salad!!

Journal Entry from the weekend of October 5-7, 2018 

(FAVORITE note after I had been gaining weight again)

✩ This weekend I have felt very good, happy and chill, while eating pizza rolls. 

I slept well and had vivid dreams. 118 looks good on me still. 

✩ I walked 3 loops around the neighborhood and on the last one I looked up. The sky was bright orange, fading into pink and blue again. I stood there and two cars drove by. I almost sat on the ground to watch the clouds, but it was getting dark. I didn't have my phone to take multiple photos. 

The sunsets always looks better in my eyes. 

✩ I am happy and loving Michael so much- not only eating healthy since Daytona. Eating what I want and feeling so excited and in love with Michael each time they order pizza at work!!!

I think this is from Olive Garden with our Potentials Foundation friends! Even now it looks so warm and good!!

 A home cook meal prepared by Michael and his parents at our house in July.

Using up those left over edamame from dinner!

>> Pretty sure that calorie calculation is way off  (so high!) But the rest is correct. <<
Notice I had weights strapped to my wrists for slight muscle gain. Yay!!

   Tilapia from Bahama Breeze ~ I LOVE going out to eat while on a diet and still getting such delicious, healthy choices!! This was when we had dinner with Michael's parents and younger brother.

 This last collage is just a fun one I like from my overnight trip to Daytona Beach with my parents & I think that's a really nice picture of myself - 112 pounds there. Had to stop for a huge acai smoothie bowl on the way! (Not too easy to eat while driving, ha!)

   I will need to have a big talk with myself this summer, after I get back down even further! I remember stopping losing weight because I was tired of eating the same things all the time, but I really was eating the same meals over and over. It made things easier- not having to think about what I was going to eat and grocery shopping was really fast. But then I was craving restaurant meals. Fine, so go to a restaurant. Go out to eat twice! Get whatever you want ~ congrats, you've done great this summer! Even enjoy the left overs tomorrow. But then the following day, come up with a new meal plan. 4 new favorite healthy foods to eat for the next 4 months! Haha, just kidding (kinda), but a variety is good. I have not been less than 112 pounds since October 2016. Technically I was 111 at the end of August 2018, but that doesn't really count because I was sick for two days. So this summer, I WILL reach 110 pounds, and 107, and maybe even 104 ~ wedding weight! Can I get a *whoop whoop*?! :)
   I am also very interested in doing another "Healthy on a Budget" post like I did a few years ago. Everyone says healthy food is so much more expensive than junk food. I guess fast food is cheap if you don't order the meal and just get the burgers or order off the dollar menu, but some fruits and vegetables are not expensive like bananas and cucumbers (50 cents each). Maybe we will stick to a budget better this summer, which we should anyway, and that will also help me not buy chips and ice cream, since I won't want to waste any money on stuff I don't need. Add it to the list!!